Spreads Like Cancer
by vortext
Summary: AU. Post-war ONESHOT. Sasuke surrendered and becomes a Konoha nin again. A story of redemption, love and introspective Sasuke's POV. SASUNARU. Contains slash. No sex scenes but implied.
**Spreads like Cancer**

 **1\. Aftermath**

The first time Sasuke saw Naruto after the war, the blonde had been wearing his Hokage robes. That elicited the tiniest of tiny smiles from Sasuke. Behind the wooden jail with numerous seals masterfully painted, Sasuke had sat with all the dignity he had left. The Nanadaime beamed and his hat tipped backwards when he tried to push his tanned face between the bars.

"Sasuke! Sasuke!" The blonde chirped, "you're being released!"

* * *

 **2\. Discharge**

"You can start with D-ranks and then slowly work your way back into being a shinobi." Sakura explained with curt tones and sharper looks. No one had really forgiven him. True that he had deflected in the last minutes of the war; false that it was out of remorse and repentance. It was an open secret that the only reason he had sided with Konoha was because he was losing the war. If he could betray his own side, who is to say that he would not stab Konoha while she was licking her wounds?

Sakura eyed him with suspicion and signed the discharge paper that declared him fit for duty. She tossed him his hitai-ate and hissed, "Naruto is too soft."

He lightly traced over the dents and scratches that were too familiar. He recalled that in his vague history, many sleepless nights were passed doing the same thing. His deflection had not been a spur of the moment decision.

Realisation dawned; the item he was holding was his hitai-ate. It was not a newly minted one, but the very same one he had thrown down. Sasuke wondered if Naruto was a sadistic bastard or if he was trying to be thoughtful. Sakura noticed his pensive looks and crushed him, "Naruto is nice to everyone. Don't think too much into it."

* * *

 **3\. Recovery**

"After a year, I see you're finally doing C-ranks." A smug Ino Yamamaka commented. He had met the woman on his mission: a simple delivery of scrolls to the Fire daimyo. He had not encountered any missing nins or mercenaries. Even if he held the rank of a Konoha Chunin, Sasuke was still once an S-ranked missing nin with a flee-on-sight tag.

"I see you've taken on a team of demons." He shot back.

Ino blinked and wondered if the last Uchiha had attempted to make a joke or sincerely considered her genin team demons. She could not help the snort that escaped. Ruffling the hair of her distant niece, she said affectionately, "Nah, they're not that bad. This little bugger is the next Yamanaka prodigy."

Sasuke surreptitiously analysed the platinum blonde girl. While he was not in the T&I department with Ibiki, he had his fair share of interactions with prodigies; most of them not pleasant. The girl seemed harmless enough and Sasuke relaxed his grip on his kunai. What was he expecting? It was not as if the girl could attack him suddenly. But he vowed to keep a close eye on the Yamanaka heir, for the village's sake at least.

* * *

 **4\. Check up**

"Aren't you a ball of sunshine?" Naruto greeted the raven-haired man and pushed his way into the Uchiha compound. Naruto coughed when dust entered his lungs, his hands swatted the air in a futile attempt to stop the dust mites from attacking but it only stirred up tornados. Sasuke caught the man's flailing arm and dryly taunted, "The Konoha Elders must be really desperate if they elected the Village Idiot as the Village Head."

The reigning Hokage took the jab in stride, "The Konoha Elders aren't desperate, just stupid." Sasuke let go of Naruto's hand and his own fell limp against his body. The gigantic compound felt even larger and emptier.

Naruto picked up Sasuke's hand and in a swift motion, pulled the trembling raven-haired boy into his arms.

Sasuke struggled in the arm trap, "I'm fine. Let go."

Patting the broad shoulders of Sasuke in an attempt to comfort and with clenched jaws, Naruto bit out, "you shouldn't be."

The last Uchiha stopped wriggling and settled his face into the crook of Naruto's neck, finally accepting the embrace. His own arms coming up to wrap around Naruto's waist tentatively. Naruto's arms tightened, grounding Sasuke to reality. Sasuke buried his face further.

They stood in silence before Sasuke mumbled out, "The Elders are right in their fears of mini versions of me. It isn't like I planned to marry a woman anyway."

Naruto countered, "It isn't about whether you wanted to marry a woman or not. It's about them taking that chance of a family away from you and it isn't right, Sasuke. And you, of all people, shouldn't be alright with that."

Sasuke laughed bitterly, tears welling up in his eyes. The feeling of helplessness disgusted him; he had not had to suffer such injustice since the Uchiha Massacre. Sasuke spat out, "What would you suggest I do then? March up to them and demand that they recognised my rights to continue the Uchiha line?"

Naruto wound his arms tighter around Sasuke. "This isn't fair," the blonde grumbled. "This isn't fair at all."

"I betrayed the entire village once, Naruto." Sasuke sighed; just because he had taken Konoha's side at the last second did not mean that the village did not hold a grudge. "Besides, who would want to be the family of a traitor?"

"Me." Naruto answered with conviction and Sasuke felt his heart lightened just a tad bit.

* * *

 **5\. Healed**

The Elders did not yield despite Naruto's repeated protests. Sasuke was banned from ever trying to continue the Uchiha line, which ultimately meant that the only sexual partners Sasuke could ever be with were male.

Couple of times, Sasuke had put on a Henge and fornicated with civilian men who could not detect the disguise. Each time had left Sasuke empty and with a mounting dissatisfaction. Through the years, Naruto had been there for him. However, he was still the Hokage with mountains of paperwork and whatever free time the Hokage had, it did not look good to have it spent all on the Village Betrayer. Even though most of the ninja population had reluctantly forgiven him, he was still a hated threat to the civilians.

Sasuke was just glad that he could at least attend the funeral of one Hatake Kakashi.

The man had died on a mission gone wrong. He managed to hold off the assailants long enough for reinforcements to protect his genin team. Still, age had caught up with the legendary Sharingan-Kakashi and he was killed in action. Kakashi had died honourably and probably exactly how the ninja would have wanted to leave.

The funeral was a simple affair. Those that relatively knew the elusive and enigmatic ninja came with flowers. There was no one to give condolences to because Kakashi had died alone. Few wept for him, most just murmured condolences to each other instead and some had disbelief colouring their tones.

Times like these, Sasuke idly wondered if anyone would even turn up for his funeral. Snow fell slowly to cover the ground and as the chill settled in, Sasuke placed a copy of Icha-Icha on Kakashi's grave before turning to leave.

"He was a good sensei till the end." the pink-haired medic stopped him. Her face was dry, but her eyes were watery.

"He would have liked to be on that stone." Sasuke agreed, surprised that Sakura was being amiable to him today.

"I know that I've been hostile," she started suddenly. "It's just that whenever I think that if I had stopped you that night, all of these would not have happened. And when that comes to mind, I just blame myself more."

Sakura turned to Kakashi's grave, "Kakashi-sensei told us that those who abandon their team mates are worse than scum. You were worse than the worst of scum, Sasuke."

"I agree," Sasuke quietly replied.

Sakura looked into Sasuke's eyes and in quiet acceptance, whispered, "I know you do."

In a rare display of affection, Sasuke patted the girl on her back. With that, she finally released and wept.

* * *

 **6\. Diagnosis**

Sasuke first realised his burgeoning attraction to Naruto when the latter tore his shirt in one of their spars. The silver lining revealed golden skin stretched over taut muscles and Sasuke never realised when that idiot had became a man.

With a hand scratching the back his head and in typical Naruto fashion, the Nanadaime had attempted to dismiss his rookie mistake. Raising his hand only served to widen the tear and Sasuke remembered thinking that Naruto would still be an idiot, no matter his age, rank or capabilities.

In hindsight, Sasuke postulated that he had probably lost his acute mental faculties when he invited Naruto to a ramen dinner.

However, Naruto merely beamed and slapped Sasuke across his back, "just like old times, eh?" Then, he casually slung his arm across Sasuke's shoulders and walked together to Ichiraku's.

Sasuke wondered when Naruto grew so tall. He also wondered why his shoulder tingled for the whole night.

* * *

 **7\. Spread**

Sasuke was 96% sure that he liked menma much more than he had liked naruto. However, the floating white with pink swirls pieces mocked him from the ramen bowl. Perhaps his recent growing adoration for a certain Naruto had something to do with it, but Sasuke refused to acknowledge it.

After ordering for additional naruto toppings, Sasuke was 98% sure he liked all kinds of narutomakis till a certain Uzumaki slid into the chair opposite his. A hood hid her signature red hair and her glasses were cracked at the corners. The previously healthy skin sunk into her bones and made her look skeletal.

"Kar-" Sasuke greeted but was cut off by the offending hand holding his lips together.

"Shhh!" Karin shushed Sasuke before immediately releasing Sasuke's lips. "I'm so sorry, Sasuke, but I couldn't risk being revealed."

Sasuke's face was impassive when he commented, "Aren't you listed on the bingo book? I hope you know that if you are caught in Konoha, I'm not going to rescue you." He picked up the chopsticks, determined to end their short encounter.

"No. _We're_ rescuing _you_." Sasuke's fingers went flaccid and he almost dropped his chopsticks from his loose digits.

Karin's eyes darted around the dimly lit and almost empty restaurant, "in fact, if we burn this decrepit place down, we can fake your death and leave. Then you will be able to leave this suffocating village that does not even extend to you the minimum rights that even civilians have. We have done research. The village council does not plan on ever letting you go beyond being a Jounin or taking on a team. Your potential is wasted here, Sasuke! I think Juugo probably already brought gasoline and you just need to use one of your fire jut-"

"I'm not going, Karin."

* * *

 **8\. Hysteria**

After Karin broke down and wept about how Sasuke was wasting away in a shithole like Konoha, Sasuke simply left the rest of his ramen untouched and went home. He spotted Juugo outside and tilted his head towards the interior of the restaurant to signal him to check on the inconsolable redhead.

That very same night, Naruto came to the Uchiha Compound for a late night drink. As they downed cups of sake after sake, Naruto rambled out his confession, "I have been thinking of asking Hinata out. I mean, everyone said that she has liked me for the longest time and I do like her as a person. Hinata's a strong kunoichi and she has been really nice to me since we were kids. Sakura told me that it was a good idea to date Hinata because it would certainly improve my image as the Hokage, you know. Dating one of the clan heads' daughter apparently gives my word a lot more weight because it means that I am mature." Naruto ended with a snort.

Naruto's hand reached out for the cup of sake but in his state of inebriation, he hiccupped and knocked the cup over. With a groan, he just slumped onto the table, head facing Sasuke's much more sober face. "What do you think I should do, Sasuke?"

Sasuke stared at his own sake cup in rumination. The both of them were silent for a long time and Naruto's eyes that were previously boring holes into Sasuke's skull started closing.

Before Naruto's eyelids completely closed, Sasuke finally replied, "I think everything is secondary to your duty as the Hokage."

Naruto's eyes snapped open. His cerulean orbs searched Sasuke's face for something he would never find- sincerity.

With a small smirk hanging on his lips, Naruto scoffed, "Maybe you want look into the mirror when you practise saying something you completely disagree with."

* * *

 **9\. Denial**

Sasuke had not felt warm since the Uchiha Massacre, but cocooned in the tight embrace of his lover, Sasuke felt warmth tickle his very core.

"Awake?" a gruff voice cut through the pitter-patter of the rain.

"No." Sasuke's protest was muffled as he snuggled further into the curve of his lover's neck.

"C'mon Sasuke, we have to get up."

"It's raining. It's cold. Let's have sex." Sasuke suggested, lodging his leg between that of his lover while kissing his collarbones. He pressed his thigh in between the legs of the man he was wrapped around and rubbed.

His lover craned his neck and arched his back, pushing their frames closer together. "You don't play fair, Sasuke. Sakura will kill us if we are late again."

Sasuke's hands started wandering about the responsive body, finding the familiar sweet spots. "Just ban Sakura from punching people, Naruto. You're the Hokage, aren't you?"

Sasuke could almost hear Naruto's amusement for his petulance when Naruto replied, "I can't."

"Yes, you can. Your bill would be so popular, even Shikamaru would personally ask you to let him sign it." Sasuke insisted, fingers treading dangerously close to the parabola of Naruto's bottom.

Naruto moaned and his own hands started their adventure on Sasuke's body, "I hope they will bury us together at least."

The rain outside continued their descent in rhythmic beats against the fogged up windows.

* * *

 **10\. Death**

Sasuke stared at the comatose man lying on the bed; turns out that Sakura's punch would not be Naruto's cause of death, a small uprising in Suna would. Sasuke stuck the flowers –a gift of well wishes from Ino- into the bedside vase. They were yellow; like spun gold in the sunlight; like Naruto's hair; like Naruto's skin; like Naruto's personality; just like Naruto.

Sasuke sat down and just stared listlessly at the heavily bandaged body.

" _Hokage-sama should know that without the Kyuubi, some of his jutsus are no longer viable. There's nothing more we can do._ "

With every beep of the heart monitor, Sasuke could only feel the cold, that had taken root in his soul, spread its greedy fingers across, paralysing him from within. Naruto had whispered an " _I love you_ " before he left for Suna and Sasuke had been so stunned by the sheer extent of how forgiving, how _loving_ Naruto's heart had been, that he just mumbled " _I know_."

The last words Sasuke had given Naruto were a rejection of his love and Sasuke felt the insides of his stomach churn in regret. Looking at the state of Naruto combined with his inner turmoil, he felt like he could vomit right there and then.

Sasuke took the icy fingers of Naruto into his own hands, warming them with his breath. The stiff appendages never grew warmer and Sasuke never wavered in his endeavour. So focused was he on his task that Sasuke never realised the wet mess on the bed was his tears and that Naruto's fingers were not moving, it was Sasuke's own shaking frame.

Trembling fingers brought Naruto's hand to Sasuke's mouth and he lightly kissed the fourth bruised knuckle of Naruto's limp hand.

"I love you," Sasuke whispered against the blue-black staining gold.

"I knew."

* * *

A/N: Leave a review to tell me what you think :-)


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